Nights at Sea #1 Shiver me Timbers is that a Tornado?

…meet it, greet it and endure

Maybe it was because of the bananas, for it is an old superstition not to bring bananas onboard, and we had a bunch of at least a hundred.
Or maybe we had offended King Neptune by saying that we did not like this sea of doldrums.
Or maybe we have had it too good too long and it was time that we be reminded of the humility one must have for the ocean.
Whatever it was it provoked the night and turned the silence into wilderness. And there was nothing for it than to meet it, greet it and endure.

We left Ambon on the twenty-second, in hope of finding a quiet beach with a coconut palm to celebrate Christmas.
The exhaust was still blowing blue smoke, the work we had done in Ambon had not fixed it. But the engine is sixty-five years old and might only be starting to show its age, for it runs fine, nonetheless.
We had a weather-window and it was a chance to make it out before the roots we were growing took hold in the trash-filled bay of Ambon.

…a rude spanking of the bow

We had had a good time in Ambon. Again it is the people and the things they share which makes the experience so great. But it is not healthy to stay in port too long, you get itchy and nervous and agitated by the little problems.
It is hard work to keep a boat seaworthy, but at sea those work hours are converted into miles and the miles end in beautiful places. But if you stay idle too long the boat becomes a floating package of problems and you forget that the sails can be hoisted, and that the bird can fly.

So, we left the harbor, under the bridge and out the long bay beating into the west winds and a short steep swell which greeted the boat with a rude spanking of the bow, not knowing that, that the night to come was going to be the hardest we had had at sea yet.

…the darker side of the sea

In writing this it is hard to find the balance between being lyrically dramatic and considerately delicate for the sake of our worrying mothers. So first I have to stress that although the night was a challenge, we were capable of handling it. And we have always known that one day, we would be at the mercy of weather like this if not something much worse. And Black Duck is set up for conditions much harsher than what we experienced on this night.

But for the sake of giving you an idea of the darker side of the sea, and get fear out of the way in this first chapter of Nights at Sea, I want to tell you what we saw that night.

…Protrude from the clouds like grey fingers

It was yet before dark and we had only just left Ambon Island behind, when Riley called me up on deck to see something strange.
In the last hours the clouds had come over from west and north and gathered in a grey mass above land to the east.

It was out of this grey mass that we saw it. A thing looking like a tornado, a rotating pillar connecting the clouds to the sea.
We have seen them before, sometimes multiple at once, protrude from the clouds like grey fingers in the sky reaching down to tease the earth. But this one was bigger and it was reaching all the way to the sea, sucking it up like an upside-down whirlpool.
Luckily it was at quite a distance and as it is the nature of these so-called waterspouts, it dissolved quickly.
Nevertheless, it was both incredible and ominous to witness.

…the hole Island went black in an instant

Later that night, when it had turned dark, it was my watch and Riley had gone to bed. Like on a normal night in Indonesia there was lightning all around. But on this night, they seemed more frequent and closer, sometimes flashing so bright it was blinding.

Even though it seems crazy to sail through a lightning storm with a big aluminum stick in the air on an otherwise flat ocean, it is actually considerably rare that a sailboat is hit by lightning. And when it happens that a boat gets struck, it is usually only catastrophic for the electronics onboard, and sometimes leaves the boat without any damage at all.
That said, it is still eerie sitting there exposed to a sky alight with blinding flashes and thunder which can be felt like the base of a techno song.

Anyways, at this point we were sailing in between two islands, one lit with thousands of lights in the villages along the coast. When suddenly a lightning bolt, like that of a cartoon, struck the island and the hole island went black in an instant. The immediate thunder confirmed that the lightning was upon us.

…the headsail reefed to a handkerchief

Next, it must have been around two or three in the morning for again, I was on watch and Riley was asleep down below. Expecting that we might run into a squall doing the night, we already had the headsail reefed to a handkerchief.
Doing the day you can see the squall approaching in the form of a black edge in the clouds called a front. But at night it comes out of the darkness when you least expect it. Therefore, we try to expect it at any time.

Normally, when the front hits, the wind picks up. Then it starts raining. Then once the rain gets really heavy, the wind chills out and the weight of the raindrops, which disrupts and dissipates the energy of the waves, calms the sea. It can be magical sailing through the heavy rain when the ocean seethes and the rain becomes like a vacuum.

…we saw the mast shudder to a blur

But this night, the wind did not chill out but grew stronger and blew the rain like a horizontal waterfall.
The sea seemed agitated, for the squall was blowing sideways on the swell, disturbing the normal rhythm of their way.
Suddenly we were in fifty knots of wind and saw the mast shutter to a blur when we ripped our headsail.
We were trying to pull the sail in, but the wind was too strong, and it pulled back. And playing tug of war with wind that strong, even with a winch, you hardly stand a chance.
But eventually we got it in and found that we were sailing six knots under bare poles with full steerage of the boat.

This is one of the first nights we have shared with each other almost entirely on watch. And on a night like this it is especially great to be a pair.

…face me in my element

But even the weather is mortal and order prevails. And it can seem to a sailor who is driven as much by emotion as instinct, that the weather too has mood swings, and that it can show fury and amity in the space of only a short moment.

The clouds can evaporate as quickly as they rolled in, and the foam on the waves letup. The wind which just screamed in your face and made you feel oh so little, whispers: ‘Thank you for listening, I’ll leave you alone for a bit, that you might recover and regain the confidence which it requires to face me in my element. Little human, oh so week, so stubborn and brave’. For if the gentle breeze could speak, I think that is what it would say.

So why was the weather so wretched?

According to the fishermen in the next village we stopped at in North Seram, December and January are the worst months of the North/West Monsoon. They pointed to the sea and said “Ombak Besar” and Angin Kuat” which means big waves and strong winds.

A fisherman who we referred to as Papa, as he was the father of Masiyta who had become a good friend and sister, shared his good insight about the weather patterns of this part of Indonesia.
Papa does not only go fishing in the bay at the village every day in in his engine-powered open canoe-like fishing boat, but often goes to sea for Tuna fishing and has been as far as Misool a hundred nautical miles away for shark fishing in the days when shark fishing was still legal.

A fisherman like Papa relies fully on being able to recognize and predict weather. And his fishing endeavors are strictly dictated by the seasons.
A storm like the one we saw, is not the end of a blue-water vessel such as our own, but would most likely be the end of a little open boat such as the one Papa has.

…The meeting point of the winds

North Maluku with the Banda Sea to its south and the Ceram Sea to its North seems to be a meeting point for two persistent weather routes in the North/West Monsoon.
In the Ceram Sea the wind predominantly blows N or NW from the Molucca Sea, pushing a swell against the north coast of Seram. And to the South in the Banda Sea the wind blows consistently from the west over a big expanse allowing the swell to build.
So maybe this explains the tumultuous weather around Manipa Strait, which runs between Ambon, Seram and Buru, the meeting point of the winds, where they unite and strengthen. But this is only our own interpretation.

…one of the friendliest places we have ever been

Something good did come out of this terrible night, for it was that weather which drove us to the village of Pohon Batu. And I can say in all earnest that Pohon Batu is one of the friendliest places I have ever been. And it was here in this small Muslim village that we spent our Christmas learning how to make coconut oil with Mama, Papa, Masiyta, Aldi and Ikal.

Night Sailing

The sunrise is always beautiful, it is something which happens every single day, but man never ceases to enjoy. But after a night of blustery weather, it is like seeing an old friend.

Sun so warm and bright I will never disparage the light.
When the horizon suddenly sharpens and your bow appears, behind you the darkness diminishes and with it does your fears.
For it is an instinct to be scared of the drear, keep your fire lit stay near.
For in the dark were lions, wolves against men, stay hidden till the light comes again.
It is deep in our belly, ingrained in our kind, so old is the fear we cannot be leave it behind.
So even at sea, where see is not only to see but also to predict, the night dictates so strict.
Sit tight, clip in, think deep, rest when you can but do not sleep.
Count the stars, can you point out mars, can you get through the minutes until the sun comes up?

If you live by the mercy of the weather, you will realize that sometimes life is a slide down a rainbow through puffy clouds with bunny ears, and other times it is a fight with Thor himself, when he throws his baleful hammer and stirs up the ocean.
But whatever you do and wherever you go, be ready.

Thank you mighty weather for your challenges and mercy!

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